Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- A slide off the deck connects to the ground below and is popular with the Graveses' children and dog.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- The deck outside the living area on the first level features a fireplace-grill combination, seating and decorative lighting.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Pete Nelson enters the crow's nest on the top level of the Graveses' treehouse.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- The view from the crow's nest, the top level of the treehouse, offers a bird's eye view of the neighborhood.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Looking from the second level bedroom landing, the Ewok Village bridge stretches toward University Lake.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- 'Treehouse Masters' host Pete Nelson shows the hot and cold running water faucet and sink in the bedroom on the second level.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- "Todd (Graves) had a skylight in his first store, and he does this disco ball thing, so we have a few of those around,' says 'Treehouse Masters' host Pete Nelson of the bedroom decor.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- A slide off the deck connects to the ground below and is popular with the Graveses' children and dog.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- The deck outside the living area on the first level features a fireplace-grill combination, seating and decorative lighting.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Pete Nelson enters the crow's nest on the top level of the Graveses' treehouse.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- The view from the crow's nest, the top level of the treehouse, offers a bird's eye view of the neighborhood.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Looking from the second level bedroom landing, the Ewok Village bridge stretches toward University Lake.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- 'Treehouse Masters' host Pete Nelson shows the hot and cold running water faucet and sink in the bedroom on the second level.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- "Todd (Graves) had a skylight in his first store, and he does this disco ball thing, so we have a few of those around,' says 'Treehouse Masters' host Pete Nelson of the bedroom decor.

Longtime fans of the show and host and designer Pete Nelson, the Baton Rouge family has collected Nelson’s books and calendars. So when they decided to climb into a treehouse project, Nelson was the natural person to reach out to, Todd Graves said.

The treehouse is the show’s first in Louisiana and also its largest, hence the episode title, “Triple Decker Record Setter.”

“I‘ve wanted a treehouse for the longest time, and we have a great tree for it,” the Raising Cane’s founder said.

The forts Graves and his buddies built in their youth, however, bear little resemblance to what Nelson and his crew have created for the family.

The tri-level treehouse constructed in a massive oak is approached from the ground by a sturdy staircase leading to the 12-by-18-foot living space — a roomy, lighted sunset deck with seating and a fireplace-grill combination; and an indoor gathering spot with a couch, bar, microwave, fridge, sink and flat-screen TV. A tiny half-bath is located off this room. The exterior is cypress, the interior pine. “Todd had a skylight in his first store, and he does this disco ball thing, so we have a few of those around,” Nelson said, pointing upward at the large, rectangular skylight.

More light pours in from groups of windows around the space. “A big treehouse needs to be full of windows, I think, so you know you’re in the trees,” Nelson said.

A longtime builder in Washington state, Nelson was able to shift his company to treehouse-projects-only after the national exposure gained from the Animal Planet series, he said.

“I love design, I love building, but something that’s got the scale of a treehouse that you’re done in a couple of weeks kind of thing, and you get to go, ‘Look at that,’ and move on to the next one, I love that. That and the fact that these trees are so great, trees in general. I just love trees,” Nelson said.

Having done treehouses in many states, he was nonetheless impressed with the massive trees growing in Louisiana.

“I’ve never seen trees this big,” Nelson said.

A wooden ladder attached to another part of the oak leads to the second level, where a bedroom again features lots of windows including a stained-glass one salvaged from a church that was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina; a Murphy bed and French doors opening onto a small balcony. Venture up another ladder to the top level, where a 6-by-6-foot overlook, called a crow’s nest, affords a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood near LSU.

Back down on the first level, a “Star Wars” Ewok Village-style bridge stretches across the yard from the first level to another overlook, complete with a telescope to view University Lake, at the property’s edge.

“It’s Swiss Family Robinson meets the bayou,” Nelson said, of he and the family’s vision for the treehouse.

Nelson starting getting inspiration for the project on his first visit to town, dining at the rustic Parrain’s.

“It’s that lived-in look,” Nelson explained. “We wanted to have that nostalgia, that history of the area. We got to really just express ourselves here.”

The build took three weeks, with the prefabrication of the walls the only step taking place back at Nelson Treehouse and Supply in Washington.

Ductless “mini split” units hanging on the walls in the first- and second-level structures handle the heating and cooling.

“I’m kind of a nonconformist kind of guy so I wanted something exceptional,” Todd Graves said. “He (Nelson) was really good at asking us what we wanted, multi-story, different pods, the Ewok bridge or Indiana Jones bridge, that looks out over the lake.

“So he was able to take those ideas we both had and say, ‘Oh, great, we’re going to do a living room pod in this tree, and a bedroom pod, and a crow’s nest that goes high, a swinging bridge to the platform.’ It was a really neat experience,” Todd Graves said.

Gwen Graves also had a wish list.

“I wanted different levels, and things you wouldn’t expect, just the Swiss Family Robinson (look), ladders going up, and different lookouts, and Pete did it.

“We absolutely wanted it to be rustic, but with reclaimed wood from Louisiana,” she said.

Nelson used old wood from a house in downtown New Orleans for the bedroom walls, and other salvaged pieces form the second level’s weather-worn siding.

Both praised Nelson’s work, down to the stairs built so the family dog, Cane II, can climb them, and the kids’ slide from the first level to the ground, which the pet also takes down sitting on the kids’ laps.

“He took so much care, like this is an expression of himself. He was just really into doing it and doing it right,” Todd Graves said.

Although the couple’s children — Charleton, 10, and Sophia, 12 — were anticipating seeing the treehouse for the first time, their dad said he was more excited than anybody.

“I think the suspense for kids, it’s like Christmas or their birthday, they’re so excited to see it and I think that’s the neat part of it,” Gwen Graves added.